I like most of what Ron Paul stands for (Libertarian) but I think his stand on withdrawing our support from Iraq is a big mistake. The United States is finally getting things calmed down over there. This was reported in the Los Angeles Times this morning and other papers earlier in the month. The Los Angeles Times is NOT a Libertarian newspaper by any stretch of the imagination and many wonder if it is even an American newspaper. To withdraw our support at this time would allow all the Iraqi people who have been helping us to be killed by terrorist forces - - - the roadside bombers could takeover and any neighboring countries that wanted to fill the power vacuum could come in and start things going again. The death toll is now the lowest it has been in fourteen months and Sunni and Shiite are starting to co-operate with each other to end the violence.
The world doesn’t need the US to dump our friends now. This would be a signal to the rest of the world how we treat our friends. I have not heard Ron Paul say that the people who are bombing pizza parlors, schools and anyone who happens to drive by should just go home. I wish he would put his efforts there.
Robert,
Frankly, I agree with you -- it would be a mistake for the U.S. government to withdraw troops from Iraq now. Except I don't think we as freedom lovers should talk about the U.S. government as "our" government, or its actions as "our" actions. If we don't distinguish between people and the governments that claim jurisdiction over them, it undermines libertarian arguments about things like taxation, regulation, and abuse of civil liberties or human rights, because to the extent we claim that "we" are just doing these things to "ourselves," there is no initiation of force against others and therefore no basis under libertarian philosophy to say a wrong has been committed.
Nevertheless, I enthusiastically support Ron Paul for the Republican presidential nomination. On at least 90% of what he stands for his positions are far and away superior to those of his rivals, and on the few areas where I disagree with him, his views are generally consistent with his principled overall approach, and also happen to be more popular than my preferred stances would be among the people whose votes he needs to attract.
Here are a few good Ron Paul websites:
http://www.RonPaul2008.com - Official Ron Paul for President campaign website
http://www.LPforRonPaul.org - A Libertarian Ron Paul site
http://www.LibertariansForPaul.com/ - Another Libertarian Ron Paul site
http://ronpaul.meetup.com/36/ - San Francisco Ron Paul Meetup group
http://www.RonPaulStreetTeam.com - A nice site by a local Meetup member
http://www.RonPaulRonPaul.com - A nice list of Ron Paul links
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))